Depth of Betrayal
by Anonymous-chic
Summary: The Rider family has many skeletons in their closet.  Some are from Alex, some from John, some from Ian, but the most, are from a totally unexpected source, someone that wasn't even born a Rider.
1. Visitors

Depth of Betrayal

The Rider family has many skeletons in their closet. Some are from Alex,  
some from John, some from Ian, but the most, are from a totally unexpected  
source, someone that wasn't even born a Rider.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider, normally I would try to write something humorous and witty here, but I am exhausted!

* * *

A woman nervously twisted her long hair around her manicured finger. Right in front of her stood a large floor to ceiling window. Normally she would have been able to see everything, or more importantly everyone that was approaching her flat, but tonight it was pouring rain, she wondered secretly if Julia had purposely picked this night because she knew it would be storming. That would be just like her. 

Suddenly the woman tensed; she had heard a noise right outside her front door. Walking gracefully over to the door, she took a deep breath, and opened it. In truth, she had nothing to be frightened of. Julia was standing there, promptly at seven o'clock, exactly as they had agreed upon.

"Hello, Julia," the woman stepped aside to let her in.

"How have you been?" the woman sat down on her own couch, taking careful note that Julia had remembered not to use her name, you could never be too careful after all.

"Okay," she spoke the word almost as if she had just barely kept herself from spilling her heart and soul to Julia. There was such pain in the woman's voice.

"My God! Pull yourself together! You don't see me falling apart like that, my husband died long ago, did I cry once? No, I didn't, I moved on! Your husband died over thirteen years ago, you would think you would have moved on long ago!" Julia rarely let such a strong showing of emotion cross her.

"It's just…" Julia cut her off.

"It's just what?"

The woman tried to answer but just let out a dry sob.

"No, let me guess," a sneering tone came out of a normally emotionless woman, "you're worried about precious little Alex!"

Seeing the look on the woman's face Julia let out a triumphant snort, "So it's true, you really do care about him! Most people never would have guessed, after all you are the woman who had her husband murdered."

The woman on the couch's body was racked with sobbing. All Julia did was sneer and taunt her more, to think that they had once been friends was outrageous.

"And also…"

The woman spoke up in a loud raspy voice, "Shut up Julia! For once in your goddamn life! I don't give a damn about Alex! I just seem to have a problem with the fact that you are my friend supposedly, and yet you still feel the need to taunt me. It's almost like we're back on Malagasto!"

"I wish we were, I really do…" Julia's voice trailed off softly, this could not be the same woman who had just been screaming.

It did not take long, however, for her sneering tone to return, "But then _you_ had to go get mixed up in all of that MI6 shit!"

"You know as well as I do that I didn't choose to," her voice was weak and her body limp.

"Maybe, I do, maybe I don't. What I do know, however, is that your idea, yes we are using it, will make SCORPIA very wealthy. That is not to mention the funds you will receive. After all, it was _your_ idea." she gave her friend an indulgent, yet mocking smile.

The woman seemed to miss the sarcasm Julia had just exhibited, because for the first time that night she smiled, not some big fake smile, but a real one, "I guess so."

"That's it, just think of the money and you will be fine," Julia turned toward the door.

The doorknob was grasped in her hand when she turned back toward the woman still sitting on the couch, "And after all, what do the deaths of a few thousand teenagers mean when you think about the profit we will make off of it," for the first time she smiled, but before the woman had even looked at Julia, she had left, never to visit that house again, for in a bit of time, she would be dead.

* * *

A man sat reclining in a large, plush chair. In front of him sat a television screen, two women appeared to be arguing. The headphones he wore provided him with audio. Even though the woman called Julia never used the other woman's name, he knew it. How could he ever forget it? She was the woman that had tried to have him killed. 

He moved suddenly as Julia moved toward the door. The entire conversation had disturbed him, but it was nothing compared to what she said next. Chills ran up and down his spine as he heard it. As he sat in the flat, he desperately wanted to get up, walk out the door, and stomp down to the woman's flat, he knew in his heart that he couldn't.

Not being able to just sit there though, he contented himself with picking up his cell phone and dialing a number he hadn't called in three months.

It rang four times before someone picked up, "Hello?"

"Yes, what do you know about what Julia is planning?" they never used names; it just made everything more dangerous. And in his line of work, the man tended to like to avoid as much danger as possible, as there would always be plenty to keep the adrenaline flowing freely.

There was a long pause before the man on the other end of the line finally spoke, "Meet me in the park at two o'clock A.M."

"Goodbye," the man went back to staring at the woman bawling her eyes out on the television screen. It tore him apart inside to think that this woman, the woman he had once loved, wished nothing short of torture and death on him, if she knew he was alive that is. No one knew he was alive, except for the man he had just called. He was his only contact to the world he used to be at the top of. At first he had savored the taste of safety. Since everyone thought he was dead, no one ever tried to harm him. But soon, he had wanted more. He had wanted things that this new_ safe_ life couldn't give him. He wanted his old life. It was like a drug, once you've had a taste; you can never quite manage to quite, no matter how hard you desperately need to.

* * *

Okay, here it is, long awaited by some (of course others didn't even know I was working on another story) 

I will try to update this one as much as I can, but now that I have two stories that I will be updating regularly the updates might be fewer and father between.

If anyone has any idea who any of the unnamed characters are, feel free to PM me, or email me at:

anonymouschic at gmail dot com Sorry about the weird spelling, but doesn't seem to support hyperlinks, and that is what my email ends up as when I type it regularly.

-Marissa


	2. Vacuums

Alex awoke to the soft hum of the vacuum, "Jack's at it again," he thought. Jack had been on a cleaning rampage lately, ever since he had been scooped out of the ocean and dumped back in London. That had been one long plane ride; he had wanted nothing more then to be safely home. When he got home, though, he had wished immediately that he was back floating in the deep blue sea. Jack had made a huge fuss, ranting on and on about how he should never have gotten mixed up with MI6 and all of that. It bugged the hell out of him, especially because if it wasn't for him she would be back in America.

With a groan he rolled out of bed. He didn't bother looking in the mirror before heading downstairs, but he imagined he looked a sight after sleeping for twelve hours straight.

As he clambered down the steps he saw that Jack had ceased vacuuming and now was vigorously scrubbing a large pile of dirty dishes. Without throwing so much as a short glance at him he asked, "What do you want for lunch; you've managed to sleep through breakfast?"

"I'm not that hungry," he muttered groggily.

"Oh, and Tom called, he said something about the cinema later."

"I'll call him back after I take a shower," he had already started moving back toward the stairs.

Jack went back to her scrubbing with an audible sigh. Alex had come back with a whole new batch of scrapes, cuts, and bruises. If someone didn't kill Alex, the stress would. No fourteen year old boy should ever have to be put through what Alex had been put through, it just wasn't right.

Alex allowed the hot, steaming water to run over him. It was such a trivial thing, but it felt good to be home and able to take a shower in his own bathroom. Stepping out, he wrapped a towel around his waist and went back into his room just in time to hear the doorbell ring downstairs. He grabbed a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of black shorts from the wardrobe and headed downstairs.

He could hear Jack talking, "I haven't seen you in a while, Tom"

"Yeah," tom sounded the same as ever.

"Why don't you come in, I think Alex is upstairs taking a shower. He got up a tad late this morning."

Alex jumped down the last few stairs, "I'm here," he turned toward Tom, "Hey Tom."

"Alex, you look…" he broke off.

Even though Tom didn't finish his sentence Alex knew that the other boy was commenting on his new batch of injuries.

"Yeah, so, Jack said you called and said something about the cinema?"

"Oh, yeah. A bunch of us from school were thinking of going to see the new Bond film."

Alex was torn between his desire to go with everyone to be a normal teenager for at least a few hours, and the huge pile of homework waiting for him upstairs.

He finally smiled, "Sure, when is it?"  
"Right now mate, come on, we're going to be late as it is."

"Oh," Alex grabbed his wallet, slipped it into his pocket, and headed out the front door after Tom, who had literally ran out the door.

They walked down the street in relative silence, one of them occasionally commenting on the beautiful weather, or the amount of homework they had been assigned. They both seemed to avoid discussing the reason Alex had been "sick" again.

"Look, mate, I'm supposed to tell everyone that I had a bad case of the flu with severe complications, and I ended up having my tonsils out, so if you could go along with it, it would be really great!" Alex said this very suddenly and Tom looked taken aback.

"Sure, but what really happened?" Tom had an eager look on his face, almost like a child waiting to be told an exciting bedtime story.

"I got shot, nothing more," Alex had no desire to explain to Tom the fiasco with Ark Angel.

"Oh, where?"

"Chest," Alex forced out through clenched teeth.

"Ouch!"

"Yeah…" he trailed off.

Just then they rounded the street corner and the cinema came into view. A group of rowdy teens were standing in front; Alex recognized only one of them.

The five waved to the pair, beckoning them over. Tom introduced Alex to the five strangers.

"This is Jena," he pointed to a short slightly overweight girl with curly red hair and freckles wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She gave Alex a cheery smile and a wave at this introduction. "This is Brett," pointing to a surly looking boy with dyed black hair in all black with chains all over his pants, which were falling halfway down his butt- Alex had to suppress the urge to laugh at the boy's pink boxers that clashed magnificently with his gothic clothing.

"Anthony," Tom made a brief gesture to a brunette boy in a Chelsea jersey and jeans. Anthony gave Alex a brief nod and a slight smile.

A girl with long black hair steeped forward with a brilliant white smile, "I'm Alicia by the way, Tom seems to have forgotten me," Alex couldn't help but notice that she was very pretty. Her log curly black hair was half pinned back and her dark eyes sparkled in the light.

"Hey, Alex," Anthony called, "Why haven't you been at school lately?"

"I had a nasty bout of flu and ended up having my tonsils removed," Alex muttered nonchalantly.

Anthony shook his head, "Yeah and my grandmother's the queen."

"Leave him alone," Alex was shocked to hear Alicia, "Why would he lie, I doubt he wanted to miss school, after all, he had to make up all of the work he missed."

Alicia stood in front of a large spotlight, and her trim figure stood out, Alex just noticed how her red tank clung to her perfectly. He had to shake his head to clear the image of her in that little white jean skirt and gold flip flops.

Alicia fell back to talk to him, "If you need any help on the work, I'd be happy to help," Alex couldn't help but smile, she was really pretty, and really nice, what more could he want?

"Thanks, really, I might take you up on that. Do you think you could come over and help tomorrow? I'm never going to be able to catch up otherwise."

"I'd love to!" she really did sound happy, Alex noted. As she ran to catch up with Jena Alex took notice of a bizarre scar on her shoulder. Clearing this from his mind he ran to catch up with Tom.

* * *

I've decided to write smaller chapters more frequently, it's easier for me, although "frequently" will not be that frequent, not with the amount of work I've had at my new school. If anyone has any guesses as to what will happen and who the two people in the previous chapter are, feel free to PM or email me!

-Marissa

You might also want to check out my other two stories!


	3. The Will

YAY!!! The third chapter! I know the updates have been few and far between but I promise that they should be more frequent now (I hope!).

* * *

The movie was dull and completely unrealistic. At one point Alex was tempted to burst out laughing at the portrayal of "M" Bond's boss. She reminded him horribly of Mrs. Jones. Alicia sat right next to him the entire time; he was horribly tempted to put his arm around her when she was shaking with fright at the supposed villain.

"Hey Alex, wait up!" Alicia called as they were walking out of the cinema. Her voice sounded breathless and her face had a slight flush to it.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, um, when do you want me to come over? To you know, help you with homework…" the flush in her face deepened and she sounded embarrassed.

"Tomorrow would be fine," Alex was scratching his head as he said it.

Alicia smiled that white smile of hers, causing Alex to blush, "Ok," she said before rushing off to the left to what Alex could only assume was the direction of her house.

The walk home was cold and boring. Nothing remotely exciting happened. In fact, he only passed one person, a man in a boring business suit, who was obviously coming home from work late. The man shot him an extra glance; it must have looked odd for a teenager to be walking home alone. Alex didn't give him a second thought though; he didn't have time, for he reached his house within five minutes.

"How was the movie?" Jack asked barely before he had finished closing the door.

Alex walked over toward her and grabbed a chip from the bag in her hand, "Fine, I'm tired though, I think I'll got to bed now."

"Night," she returned to intently watching the reality show on television.

Alex climbed the stairs slowly and opened the door to his room. Collapsing fully clothed, onto the bed he soon drifted off into a restless sleep.

The sun streaming through his open window woke him in the morning. He bolted up. 'What time is it?' he thought.

A short glance at the clock to the table beside his bed answered that. His mind wandered to Alicia. When was she coming? Alex knew that they had agreed on that day, but when?

Figuring he wouldn't know until she arrived, he decided he might as well be dressed. He quickly showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and headed downstairs right as the doorbell rang.

"Um, is Alex there?" he could hear Alicia's uncertain voice from the landing.

"Yeah, but who might you be?" he suddenly realized that he had forgotten to tell Jack that Alicia was coming.

"Sorry Jack," Alex walked into the foyer, "She's Alicia, she'll be helping me with the mound of homework I accumulated while I was sick…" he finished rather lamely.

Obviously oblivious to the lie Alex had just spit out; Alicia came in- a large Algebra textbook under her arm.

"I figured we might as well start with Algebra, you've missed a good deal of that." Glancing around seemingly looking for his school things she looked confused (Alex couldn't help but notice that she looked very cute when she was confused), "Where are your books?"

"Oh, I'll go get them, they're upstairs," he explained. As he walked up the stairs he turned around and pointed to Jack, "This is Jack by the way, my guardian."

Grabbing a pile of work he headed back downstairs only to find Jack scouring the house for her keys.

"Where on earth could they have gotten to?"

"Are you going somewhere?" Alex inquired cluelessly.

"Yeah, I have to run to get some groceries," there was a knowing look on her face that he couldn't quite ignore.  
"Oh well, I'll just have to use my spare key," Jack headed out the door.

Alicia called after her, "Bye, it was very nice meeting you," a wide genuine smile crossed her lips.

"We probably should get started," Alex was watching Alicia closely as she said this.

"Yeah, I have a ton of work to get done in a very short period of time."

For the next hour and a half they worked intently on Algebra. After a while Alex got the point where he was so tired of it, that he couldn't add two and two.

With a sigh Alex looked up from his notebook "I need a break!"

Alicia didn't seem to hear him right away, but finally she looked up from the page she was scanning in his physics book, "That sounds good!"

"How about some popcorn and a movie, a plot less comedy sounds awful appealing right now."

Alicia giggled, "Sure!"

As Alex microwaved the popcorn Alicia continued to read the page in Alex's book intently.

Alex set a bowl on her lap, "Oh," she looked up finally, "Thanks." He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Half hour passed in this manner, the room was full of laugher. The movie they were watching was so plotless and dumb, that it was hilarious.

Alex suddenly realized that Alicia was a lot closer then she had been at the beginning of the movie, either he had moved or she had moved, and he was almost positive that he had been stationary.

He shot what must have been his sixth glance in her direction that minute, she looked so pretty when she laughed he mused. His cheeks grew hot with this thought, but still he scooted closer. As they laughed he turned to look at her and cupped her pale cheek in his hand. Alicia turned to look at him and he kissed her. It was so random, and yet so perfect. Alex was a normal teenager for once, kissing a normal teenage girl.

Their fun wouldn't last though, Alex could hear the front door opening and closing and he quickly moved away from Alicia. At first she looked slightly hurt, wondering why he had suddenly broken the kiss, but she eventually realized that Jack was home.

"Hi guys! Did you get much work done?" there was a smug, knowing look on her face as she said this.

"Yeah, I actually need to be going, my mother will be wondering where I am." Alicia stood up, her face still beet red. "Bye Alex," she waved to him as she walked out the door.

Alex avoided Jack's gaze as he gathered up his school books. He glanced at the page Alicia had been so keen on in his physics textbook. It was all about planes and aviation. With a pang in his stomach he thought of his parents, and how they had died in a plane crash.

Walking down the bright London streets Alicia's phone rang. "Hello," she answered in a crisp, brisk voice that was nothing like her sweet, honeyed manner of earlier.

"We have found your mother's will," the voice on the other end sounded timid, almost frightened.

"And?" she asked impatiently, she had no time for incompetent idiots like this.

There was a sigh from the man on the other end, "She left you everything," he paused and with what seemed like gritted teeth spoke again, "Just as you had thought."

A smug, greedy smile crossed Alicia's face. Although, her sugary smile she had given Alex made her appear radiant; this look just mangled her normally beautiful features beyond normal recognition.

The man on the other line began to speak but Alicia cut him off briskly, "We shall discuss it when I arrive," and snapped her black razor phone shut with a smile, the day was going exactly as she had hoped it would.

I would like to thank all of my VERY FEW reviewers, to the rest of you that read without reviewing (evil glare) how about you push that pretty little purple button right below!

-Marissa


	4. I Don't Know

"Come on, mate! There is no way that they will win."

"Tom, they are one of the best teams in the league." Alex and Tom stood outside Ms. Parker's room. It was right after lunch on Alex's first day back, and neither of them were over eager to get back to work.

Exactly as Alex had suspected, all of the kids gave him weird looks and asked way too many questions, but somehow, he found the entire experience tolerable. He had only seen Alicia once today, and she had been surrounded by a group of giggling girls. He was supposed to have his history class with her next, though.

"So, Alex, have you talked to Alicia lately?" Alex somehow overlooked the all-knowing smile that crossed his lips.

"Uh…yeah," a light flush was rising Alex's cheeks. "She, uh, came over to help me with some work that I missed."

Tom let out a hearty laugh, "Work! Wow, mate, I thought you would be able to come up with something better than that."

"We were working."

"I'm sure you were. At what, I'm not so sure…" Tom repressed another laugh, as Alex playfully punched him on the arm.

In a much more serious tone Alex continued, "We actually did do some work."

"I bet," Tom snorted and rolled his eyes. "Alicia isn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box. If you really want help with your work, you sure as hell don't ask her."

Alex had to mentally agree with Tom, though he would never vocalize this particular opinion, for at that moment Alicia rounded the corner.

"Speak of the devil," Tom muttered almost inaudibly.

Alicia walked confidently down the corridor toward Alex and Tom, surrounded by four or five extremely pretty girls. Alex couldn't help but noticed how many of the guys' heads turned as they passed. One, a tall, burly black boy named Jeff even whistled at them. The other girls hung back as Alicia walked up to Alex and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Tom gawked at a curvy blonde girl to Alicia's right, "Alicia, who is that?"

Alicia looked as if she was about to respond, but the blonde cut in, "My name is Devin. Would it really be that difficult to ask me?"

Tom looked taken aback. The girl tossed her perfectly curled hair over her bare shoulder and flashed a brilliant white smile that mocked as much as it seduced. "Isn't Devin a boy's name?"

"It can be. But obviously it can also be a girl's name. I'm living proof after all." Tom looked like he was finding the mini skirt clad girl less and less appealing with every word that came out of her mouth.

Tom opened his mouth to say something but the girl once again cut him off, "Well, I have to go. I have a calculus class that started," she glanced up at the clock on the wall, "five minutes ago."

This really made Tom's jaw drop, "_You_ take calculus?"

Devin didn't say a word. She just stomped off down the dreary hall toward her class.

"Alicia, your friend is a bitch!" Tom looked like he was about to start smoking at the ears. A situation that was not remedied by the group of giggling girls that had just watched Devin and Tom's little exchange.

Alicia waggled a pink manicured finger at him, "Maybe she is, but she is the smartest girl you will ever meet."

Alex slid his arm protectively around Alicia's tiny waist as she toyed with a beautiful silver pendant that hung around her neck. Alex couldn't help thinking that she looked amazing in her low cut lilac tunic and dark wash skinny jeans. She leaned her head on his shoulder as he whispered softly in her ear how amazing she looked. With a white smile she gave him yet another soft kiss on the cheek.

Tom looked sulky and miserable surrounded by the bunch of giggling girls.

"Oh, Tom. Cheer up! I'm sure there are plenty of other pretty blonde girls around here," Alicia flashed him one of her signature dazzling smiles.

Tom opened his mouth to speak when he was suddenly cut off (That sure seemed to be happening to the poor guy a lot) by a sudden explosion somewhere in the east wing of the school. It was quickly followed by what Alex recognized as machine gun fire. A lot of machine gun fire.

Alicia shrieked and threw her arms around Alex. "What's happening? What happened?"

A million ideas raced through Alex's head, every one crazier than the last. MI6. CIA. ASIS. SCORPIA. What could any one of those organizations be doing here? At his school. Finally he settled on the truthful answer. "I have no idea…"

* * *

There it is! I really hope you liked it. I know it is short...

I think I will be concentrating on Secrets Kept for a while. I want to get that finished by summer. I would like to have a few chapters of the sequel done as well, but I don't know if that will happen.

Once, again, I'm sorry for the wait….

-Marissa


	5. Blame

A second explosion followed the first one, almost instantly. The first one had been bad, but this one was horrible. It came from somewhere near the science room just a few doors down the hall from where they were standing. Alicia screamed again, as a third explosion rocked the school—this one even closer—Alex grabbed Alicia around the waist and pulled her to the ground. He didn't know why he did it, but a moment later he sure was glad he did. Bullets sliced through the air, bringing down at least 10 students. From what Alex could see from his low position was limited. There were at least three gunmen, and there also seemed to be one woman, she appeared to be in charge.

The normally quiet halls were filled with screams of anguish and pain as students felt the white hot pain of a bullet, or noticed that their friends had already been gunned down. Alicia buried her head deeper into Alex's shoulder. When she moved it slightly he could see black stains from her make-up. Her eyes were welling up with tears.

"Alex, please, get us out of here!" she sobbed.

A million ideas rushed through his head, each one less likely to work than the last. Finally, he settled on the gym. It was just down the hall and there were three exits. The issue was that if there was a gunman in the gym, they would be killed immediately. There was no cover in the gym, just an open floor. He knew it was a risk, but one they had to take if they had any hope of getting out of there alive.

"Alicia?"

"Yeah?" her voice was shaking and tears silently run down her pale cheeks.

"When I say go, I want you to run as fast as you can to the gym. Take off those shoes, there is no way you can run in them."

Alicia quickly took off the heels, she knew Alex was right, but it was still hard to part with them. Alex looked around, Tom was gone, and it was just he and Alicia in this little corner. Students ran everywhere, and every minute or so, another explosion rocked the building. This was complete and utter chaos.

As one of the gunmen turned around to shoot someone, Alex whispered to Alicia, "Go!"

She didn't look back. She sprinted toward the door and threw it open. Alex was actually surprised at how fast she could run. The man turned around at the sound of the door opening, but he didn't do anything. He just redoubled fire at one of the younger boys that had just rounded the corner. Alex took this opportunity. He knew the man would turn and fire as soon as he started running, but he also knew that he needed to get out of there.

Alex had been sent all over the world for MI6, but very few things could compare to the despair that struck him as he sprinted full out across the gym. At least half of his classmates were dead by now, and another quarter were probably injured. How could this have happened?

He wrenched open the door to find Alicia crouched on the ground crying and shaking in fright. Her entire face was coated in streaks of make-up. Alex gently told her, "You need to get up, we have to get out of here before they come looking for us."

"Why would they look for us? We aren't that special. I mean, they have plenty of other kids to shoot," her voice broke as she uttered the last sentence. She mumbled something unintelligible through all of the sobbing, but slowly rose to her feet.

Alex had to half carry her across the field behind the school. Once they reached one of the alleys of London, he paused. What were they going to do? They needed to get help. That was for sure.

At the end of the block they emerged on after they had trampled through the alley was a small coffee house. It looked like somewhere that they could wait while they figured out what they would do. Inside, there were about twenty five people gathered around a plasma television, obviously watching some new program. Alex ordered two small coffees for Alicia and him and sat down.

He could feel the adrenaline rush subsiding slightly, and for the first time in over an hour, he was able to actually think straight. "What was going on?" was the one thing that kept floating across his mind. He was telling the truth when he said that he had no idea.

At that moment a smiling woman brought the coffees over to their table. Alicia accepted her coffee gratefully, and slurped it down. Alex, who had almost forgotten that Alicia was sitting across from him, let the woman set it on the table. Suddenly, coffee didn't sound like such a good idea. He had just glimpsed what was on the television.

There was a live broadcast of what was happening at Brookland School, and it was not a pretty sight. Smoke and flames were rising from half of it, and you could hear another explosion as the reporter spoke. Alex watched as one of the windows in the lobby shattered, obviously struck by bullets.

That wasn't the worst of it, oh no. If the only new issue they had right now was a window breaking, Alicia and he would be relieved. Suddenly the reporter received what looked like a note card from one of the camera men. He looked down and read it, as two photos popped up on the screen. "These two students are the ones that many claim to be responsible for planning this attack, and also for planting the bombs that killed many students."

The pictures were of Alicia and Alex. He couldn't believe it. Everyone knew that there was no way that Alex could have done that. And why would Alicia do something like that? She was new to the school; can you really develop a hatred that fast? The answer was no obviously, but everyone else didn't know that.

Alex watched as the woman behind the cash register picked up the phone while looking straight at Alex and called the police. "Alicia," he grabbed her hand, "we have to get out of here!"

"Where on earth will we go? The cops will be looking for us everywhere!"

"I have no idea, but it isn't a good idea to stay here!"

"But, wouldn't it be easier to let the police sort it out," she appeared terrified, like she had just seen a ghost.

"I don't have to argue, let's go!" He was screaming now. He grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the coffee house. The one thought that drifted through his mind was scarier than all of the problems of the past two hours. What is this was his fault?

* * *

Thank you to Lady Zarobiti for prompting me to write another chapter. I hope you like it!

-Marissa


	6. Mocking

He yanked Alicia out of her seat and pulled her forcefully toward the door, she had a horrified look on her face. Alex was both sad and scared to say that it was directed toward him. She pulled weakly against his grip, but she wasn't exactly "strong". The look of her face as he continued to tug was enough to make his arm go limp and his hand to loosen his death grip on her. Frightened, she pulled away and bolted toward the cashier and ran behind her and out the employee's exit.

Alex stood there staring for a moment, what had he done? She was going to get into a lot of trouble because of him. He just couldn't stand there and let that happen. Or could he? What good would he do her is he was in jail? How could he help her? In a split second he made the decision to run without her. He could already hear a man about two feet away suggesting to his wife that he looked like the boy on TV. He had to get out of there. Fast.

As calmly as he could he pulled open the glass door and stepped out onto the busy London street. Where would he go? Surely the police would find him if he went to his house. Possibility after possibility rushed through his head. Only one seemed to be a viable answer. MI6. As much as he despised them, they might actually be able to give him an answer regarding why people had attacked his school. They surely wouldn't want one of their most valuable agents turned into the police. As he watched an elderly woman in a silver sedan drive past a horrifying though struck him? Why did they think he was responsible? What if MI6 had somehow been in on it?

This scared Alex out of his mind, but he realized that it was something that he was going to have to risk. MI6 was still his best option. They could protect him, but more importantly they could tell him what was going on. Alex felt a breeze wash over him as a red sports car flew by. This jolted him out of his thoughts. He had to get to MI6, Alicia would be fine, he tried to convince himself.

A sudden shout from behind made his blood run cold, "Alex Rider, stop right where you are!" Turning around Alex saw two policemen staring right at him, guns drawn. Without a second thought he bolted. He didn't think he had ever run so fast in his life. A woman screamed as he shoved past her, her purse fell to the ground and its contents spilled all over. Shoving aside everyone that dared to get in his way Alex finally made his way to a small alleyway.

He could hear the police closing in on him. They hadn't been able to shoot in the thick crowd, but he doubted they would be so hesitant here, with the only occupants being the occasional homeless person. Dirt swirled up around his new trainers as he ran. He broke out onto a sunny street in west London. The red brick buildings and reasonably clean concrete were a welcome relief from the greasy grimy alleyway. Behind him, he could just feel the police scanning the crowd for him.

Quickly, he ducked into a small clothing shop. Inside it was a packed with a colossal amount of unique and interesting clothing, ranging from vintage ball gowns to futuristic looking metallic pants. The sales girl stood behind the counted inattentively, she didn't even look up when the small bell dinged. It looked like she was reading one of those celebrity gossip rags. Alex frankly didn't care what "Bradgelina" had done this time, all he cared about was finding a spot to hide while the police passed.

Grabbing an armful of clothing he headed back toward the dressing rooms, but found the large steel doors to e locked. Through all of the scratches and dings that dotted the door, Alex could still see that he was pale and his pants were covered in dirt. "Um…miss? Can you unlock the door?" he called to the young girl. Without so much as a glance at him, she slid the key she wore on an elastic band around her wrist into the door and a dull click signaled that it was unlocked.

"Thanks," he murmured. The girl was already back to her tabloid magazine. He sat down inside the room and tried to catch his breath, but he found that it just wouldn't come. Try as he might, he couldn't swallow the sense of guilt and panic over Alicia's whereabouts. "I should have dragged her with me," he said to himself. He kept turning the options over in his mind, each one sounded worse than the last.

Even through the steel door, Alex could hear the ding of the bell that signaled someone else had entered the shop. He could hear muffled voices through the door, "We are looking for Alex Rider, someone said that they saw someone matching his description enter the shop." It was the police. There was no way he could run from this one. What had he been thinking? He had just done all of the work for the police. He had trapped himself in a tiny metal box with only one exit. Quietly, he slipped out. There was an employee exit. He threw open the door, but he had gone no more than five feet when he smacked into someone.

Alex fell to the ground. A short glance upwards made his heart stop. "Alicia," he gasped. "You look…different." Indeed she did. She had done away with her skimpy clothing and was instead clad in a simple green track suit and running shoes. On her arm hung a black messenger bag.

"This is more my style," she said simply. Her voice shocked Alex. It was crisp, decisive, and cold. The mocking smile that was pasted on her face didn't seem like her either.

"Well, anyway, I'm glad you're okay," he couldn't help but smile as he said that. "We do have to go though, we need to get out of here, the police will find us any minute." He grabbed her hand gently and urged her toward the end of the dark alleyway.

"Alex, look at your stomach."

A short glance told him far more than he had wanted to know. Embedded in his stomach was an empty syringe. With a yank it slid out. He was shocked he hadn't noticed it before; the needle was at least three inches. "What the fuck did you do that for?" he exploded.

"Alex, that syringe contains a lethal and little known poison. You better do exactly as I say or this little vial," she held out a tiny glass vial of a brownish liquid, might just find itself smashed on the ground." She waved it around for dramatic emphasis.

Alex aimed a well place punch at her stomach. She dodged it easily and lashed out with a furious kick at his leg. From his new point on the ground he asked her, "why the hell are you doing this? What's the point?"

"You are going to take me to MI6." At the startled look on Alex's face she added with a sneer, "Yes I know your dirty little secret."

"No!"

"Oh I think you will. If you try to run to a hospital, I'm sure you will find that they have no known antidote for this. In fact, I'd be shocked if they knew what it was."

"What exactly is it?" he snarled through tightly clenched teeth.

"That's none of your business," her formally charming white smile just served to infuriate Alex now, but he couldn't do anything. He didn't know if she was lying or not, but he didn't feel like gambling with his life. "This all could have been over with if you hadn't insisting on trapping yourself in that accursed little box for so long, I thought they would have trained you better."

"Alicia, stop taunting me, and let's get on with this."

* * *

I think this just might be my new favorite story.

I told you she wasn't a Mary Sue. Last time I checked, Mary Sues don't try to KILL Alex. Don't worry though, this isn't even close to being the last twist. )

Does this explain all of the oddities about her? I hope so. There are still more explanations to come, but I promise this one will move along much faster than Secrets Kept.

-Marissa


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